


Dramatical High-School

by The_Tardis_Rose_10



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Gay Sex, Highschool AU, M/M, Noiz is older than Aoba, Robo-sexuals, almost breaking the 4th wall but not quite, boy next door, creepy teacher, friendship feels, much humor, much sass, puns, relationship feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 19:13:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2439758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Tardis_Rose_10/pseuds/The_Tardis_Rose_10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where everything is gay and nothing hurts, (Hehe it's funny because Noiz) there is a boy named Aoba that simply wants to get his crappy high-school life out of the way and move forward. He soon finds that sometimes the people you least expect to make a difference in your life, often can change your world for the better and show you that the worst places and times in your life can actually be pretty great. With that said, his is not a sappy love story, it is quite the opposite; this is high-school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay guys, I figured that i might need to explain a few things before you get ready to read this story. This Fan-Fiction is meant to be funny and sarcastic and to make people laugh. Although on occasion the characters may seem slightly out of character, the point is that it is all for fun. I think that you will learn to love the nerds in this story as much as I do, they really are great. The first chapter is a little slow, but have no fear, it will pick up soon. I laughed the whole time I was plotting this story, just for the simple fact that the sass level and stupidity in this story are so high and so wonderful, so please, sit back and enjoy this gay Roller-coaster ride that is my writing. :3  
> <3

"Get up you lazy ass." Sei stood over my bed and flipped the lights on and off about seven times before I even had the strength or the will to halfheartedly throw a pillow at his stupid face, or at least try to and end up only abusing my floor with my girly throwing skills. 

“You have one more chance before I do the thing you hate.”

I did hate the thing. By thing, he referred to going down into the basement and screwing with the breaker box until I had no hot water for the shower I would eventually rise from my comfort zone and claim. I never could figure out that damn breaker box, he always knew how to get it just right so I could not undo his cruel punishment. This was one morning that I did not have an interest in fighting with him. This was the first day of the end of my life. This was the first day of high-school.

I drug myself half dead into the bathroom and smacked a hand against my sleep deprived face, _“What the hell is with my hair?”_ Looking in the small round mirror above our pitiful looking little sink that in all honesty had probably not been cleaned since Grams had last forced Sei to do so, I took in the matted blue mess that used to be hair.

“You have thirty minutes before I leave you here, and then you will walk yourself to school Aoba!” Grams yelled from what was probably the kitchen.  She always knew just how to brighten up my mornings.

I took one last look at myself before I stepped into the shower and pretended to clean myself for about five minutes. Any longer and I would surely be late. I dragged myself back into my room and finished collecting all of my crap for the day before I finally met Sei and Grams at the table for breakfast. I usually had quite an appetite, but this morning I just picked at the delicious looking food that grams had made.

“First day Aoba! I am sure that you are more than excited! You will make all kinds of new friends, as long as you don’t act like an ass and you get that ugly look off of your face.” Grams adjusted herself in front of everyone as she often did without shame, and pointed an accusing finger, “you have to learn how to be more sociable! Just be more like your brother! He has tons of friends!” Sei cocked his head and gave me a sideways smile as he always did when he was clearly being better than me.

“It is not that hard, really, you just need to be yourself and people will just come to you Aoba! You are a wonderful and very intelligent boy, you need to let people see that!” He always turned into such a douche when he was referred to as better than me.  He thought he was God because he was born a few seconds before me. 

“Well, maybe if I could take a class in Ass-kissing 101 to learn a few of your skills, people would like me more.” I smiled and went to take a self-satisfied bite of rice, but only ended up spitting it all over the table as Grams smacked me in the back of the head with her fan.

“Aoba, mind your manners dammit!” Grams always scolded us for using profanity, but using profanity.

“Yes Grams.” I replied as I picked up my bowl and walked over to the sink. I could feel Sei’s eyes burning holes into me as I walked, but I refused to meet his glare. After we had finished cleaning up, I gathered my back-pack and opened the door for Grams. Sei sauntered out the door after her and gave me yet another one of his “I am, and will always be the favorite" looks. He usually said the phrase to go with the look, but with Grams in such close proximity, he would never risk his precious “good boy” image to fight with me.

The ride to school took what seemed like all of eternity, and when we stepped out of the car I blew Grams a kiss. “Have a good day Aoba.” She said as I closed the door. Sei was already out of sight. I was on my own. I paced myself slowly to the large doors of the school and took a minuet to read the large letters above the entrance. “PLATINUM JAIL HIGH-SCHOOL FOR BOYS” was stretched across the top of the building in wide blocked letters. _“Wonderful,”_ I thought to myself, _“As if I wasn’t expecting it to be enough of a prison.”_

The doors parted and I was hit with the roar of a hallway full of teens, mixed with the smell of too much Axe body spray. “Welcome to hell.” I stated under my breath and made my way slowly through the crowd, trying not to be pushed and shoved but failing miserably. By the time I made it to my locker I was already out of breath and ready to hide in the bathroom. I caught a glimpse of Sei and tried to wave him down, but his only response was a sharp head turn and his all too popular magic trick of disappearing in under 20 seconds. The boy was practically freaking Criss Angel. Yes. I was on my own.  I closed my locker door and to my surprise there was a person standing behind it. I let out a yelp of terror that was a tad bit louder and more feminine than I would have preferred.

“Um…Can I help you?” I quipped as he stared into my soul with his almost neon lime green eyes.

“Did I scare you little boy?” he inquired too much of my surprise. “I am so sorry! I didn't mean to spook you!” The look of mischief in his eyes told me that he was being extremely sarcastic and I tried my best to rip my eyes away from his impressive amount of piercings and back away slowly.

“I...I didn't, I mean, you didn't….” I stuttered when he tilted his head to the side and came a bit closer.

“I don’t bite.” He laughed evilly. “Ohhhhh, wait! I knew I hadn't seen you around here before! You’re a freshy aren't you little boy?

I nodded without thinking first and continued to try and escape, but he just kept staring me in the eyes and coming closer. Grams had warned me about guys like him, he could only mean trouble, and that was the last thing I needed today. _“Just my luck! Getting my ass kicked on the first day of school.”_

"What’s wrong? You afraid of me or something?" The blond sneered as he backed me into the lockers, "Baby’s first day of high-school? Awwww, poor thing."

"Leave me alone you dick." I mumbled under my breath as I struggled to escape the laughing glare of my attacker, "I just want to get to class." I tried my best to seem like I was not afraid and I gave him the most fearsome look I could muster.

He raised his hands up sarcastically and backed away as I adjusted my back pack and hurried toward the history classroom.

I practically melted into a chair next to an odd looking white haired boy who seemed about as comfortable as I did and we both opened our books up as the teacher walked in and closed the door.

"Class." He greeted with a nod and began sifting through a pile of paper on his desk for his student info sheet. He pulled the paper out of a stack and raised his eyes up towards us, "First things first. I have some rules for everyone. One: When I talk, shut up. I am more important than you. Two: Do your work or you will fail, no exceptions. Three: Never, and I mean ever, be late for…"

The door slammed open and the tall blond (with the impressive amount of metal in his body) sauntered into the class and threw himself in a chair.

"My class…" the dark looking teacher growled as he adjusted his tie and glared at the teen. "Next subject, you will call me Professor Mink. I am not your "Sir", this is not the forties. I am not your "Mister", this is not a cheesy paperboy movie. I am your Professor and you will address me as so. Now on to the final matter."

He took a second to shuffle around in his papers and I took this opportunity to glance at the walking jewelry store across the room from me. He was looking at me too so I quickly looked away, but not before I read a small amount of self-accomplishment on his face. He had me right where he wanted me, and he knew it.

"We have a few new students in this class, they have been put in a higher level class because, unlike most of the sophomores in this room, they try to accomplish something in life." Without shame, he looked over at the blond who in return, made a kiss face and waved sarcastically. Professor Mink continued with a roll of his eyes. "Is there an A-OBA here today?" he asked as he struggled over the name.

I sunk into my chair and raised my hand halfway. “Here”

"Glad to have you with us Aoba. Someday I will learn how to pronounce your God-damn name."

The blond suddenly jerked upright with widened eyes and a far too huge grin for his stupid face. “Oh my god? Your name is Aoba? HA! What a gay name!” He pushed his chair onto its back legs and let out a loud laugh, “More like GAY-OBA! You look like a girl you freak. I wish you would tell me the secret to your long luxurious hair, it is just divine!" He laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair. 

"Noiz, shut the hell up." Professor Mink growled at the boy. "One more sound and you will be seeing me for a lot longer today than you want to. If you can’t understand what I mean by that, let me spell it out; D-E-T-E-N-T-I-O-N."

Noiz rolled his eyes and grinned across the room at me.

I folded my arms and put my head on the hard wooden desk. "This day is never going to end."

 

 

               


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mizuki gave a self-confident smirk and smacked me on the back, "You see Aoba, when people are trash, you just have to treat them like trash, and throw them out like trash."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehehehe! So this chapter has picked up just a tad. It is still a little slow, but may I just say that Clear is adorable, Noiz may or may not me crushing on Aoba, Koujaku is that cool neighbor, and I promise that you will not hate Sei! Also, I may or may not have turned Mizuki into an asshole. :D There is a slight dash of angst in this homo soup, but have no fear, it all works out! Here we go!

I barely made it through the rest of class. After one of the most humiliating experiences of my life, nothing really seemed to matter now. Professor Mink continued to ramble on about god knows what, and the only time that I really paid him any attention was when he pointed his finger at the white haired boy next to me.

"You're new, what’s your name?" The professor shuffled through his papers yet again but was suddenly distracted, seeming about as amused as everyone else in the class did when the boy stood up, walked to the front of the class, and with a huge smile proclaimed joyfully, "My name is Clear! Wonderful to meet everyone!" He continued to stand in front of the class and smile with his hands in the air as everyone stared at him blankly.

Finally the professor put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Sit down son."

Clear made his way back to his chair (beside me unfortunately) smiling the whole time. The stares continued to pelt him as class rolled on and it seemed that they bothered me more than they did him, he simply sat over his book, looked up every so often, and sketched away on his papers. I, on the other hand, was a bit more concerned with everyone else. Aside from the confused, curious, and judgmental stares that were being pointed in my direction towards Clear, Noiz continued to glance at me and I continued acting like I didn't notice.

 Finally class ended and I scooped up my book, making a bee-line for the door. I actually almost made it out the door before Noiz caught me, but at the last second, he cut me off. He was blocking the door not only for me, but for everyone else, and the unamused looking teen that had been granted the pleasure of sitting next to him was stuck behind him as well. Noiz looked at me and smiled as he pushed the door open in front of me, "Ladies first, Gay-oba." He glanced at the boy behind him and laughed, "They can't say that I'm not a gentleman can they Mizuki?

The boy, Mizuki, glared at Noiz before pulling out his phone and starting to text someone, "Don't talk to me, freak show."

Noiz brushed off the comment with a shrug and focused his attention back on me, obviously hoping for some sort of reaction, but not wanting to grant him such pleasure, I simply shoved him out of my way and walked out the door. Fortunately enough, the only class I had with the human pin cushion was history, however, I had all of the rest of my classes with Clear, who made sure he sat beside me in every one of them. It's not that Clear was bad company or anything like that, he simply acted like a freak of nature. He was more excited over answering math equations than a second grader was about showing off his new deck of Pokémon cards. If his excited waving and exclaiming of "PICK ME! PICK ME!" every time he knew the answer to a question was not embarrassing enough, watching him try to communicate with other people was. No matter what snarky comment someone threw at him, his only response was to smile and say thank you, no matter what they said. He was also making an un-nerving habit of putting his hand on my shoulder every time he talked to me.

The company of the off centered foreign exchange student was enough social suicide, but to finish it all off wonderfully, by the end of the day Noiz had successfully spread the rumor of his cute little nickname for me all over the entire school. Anywhere I went, boys were sarcastically waving, making kiss faces, and winking at me to acknowledge the fact that they too were part of the joke. It only got worse when they caught on to the fact that Clear insisted on following me everywhere that I went. "Who's your boyfriend Gay-oba?" They teased immaturely. I simply ducked my head and continued my walk of shame down the hall. Clear, however, seemed to not be phased in the least at their jesting. I was beginning to wonder if he really even understood the language. He spoke it fine and responded to questions, but what kind of person didn't even react to teasing?

"You are such an enjoyable person to be around Aoba! I think that we are going to be best friends! Do you think that you could come over to my house and hang out after school?" The boy looked at me with such hope in his sparkling purple eyes that I almost felt bad telling him no, but to be honest, I didn't feel bad. It was hard enough trying to blend into the crowd with my stupid hair, Noiz up my ass everywhere I went, and him spreading rumors about me to the whole school, but having this strange dressing and odd acting kid follow me around was certainly not helping matters. "I really would like to," I lied, "but I have to get home and help my Grandmother with...stuff." I was amazed at how well he took my rejection, his eyes continued to sparkle and he smiled boldly at me, "That’s just fine, some other time then!" With that he gave me a hug and trotted off down the hall. I took a deep breath and hoped no one had seen that last part, and luckily for me, no one had.

I actually thought that I was going to make it to my locker and out of the school in peace, but right when I was reaching to snap closed the lock, I felt the unmistakable feeling of someone waiting behind me. "I thought I felt a cold breeze." I replied as I pushed past the blond and made my way to find an exit to the outside world. Why did I even bother, he just followed me anyway.

"I just thought I would say good-bye to the prettiest girl in school!" he replied quickly. He continued to follow me as I walked away, matching my pace as he caught up to me. I have to admit, although I walked with the confidence of a God, I was not quite sure anymore where I was going. "Fuck off freak." I snapped, and I heard his footsteps slow as he fell a few paces behind me. I halted for a second and desperately tried to find a way out of the never ending maze of hallways, and I heard him softly approaching behind me.

"I didn't mean to really upset you..." he said in a tone that caught me off guard. I turned around and noticed that he had taken off the hat he had been wearing since I had encountered him that morning, and he was running his fingers through his short blond hair. I also casually noticed that his ears were pierced as heavily, if not more, than his face. I'm sure that I stared a bit too long before I tore my eyes away and looked at the ground.

"The exit is down this hall and to the left. Look, I know I can be a dick most of the time but..."

"Yeah, that basically sums it up." I snapped perhaps a bit too harshly, cutting him off as I turned and continued down the hall. He didn't follow.

* * *

"Grams, I'm home!" Usually I was met at the door with either an affectionate greeting or a slap to the back of the head for something I had done, but today, Grams wasn't home. I fought off the urge to worry as I usually did when she wasn't in my sight at all times, but I couldn't help feeling that familiar ache in my stomach. Sei did not seem to mind though, he walked in the door and threw his bag on the floor (something that I had never had the honor of getting away with) without even acknowledging her absence. 

"Sei," I demanded, "Have you noticed something missing?" I growled with obvious disapproval in my voice.

"I realize that she isn't here," he replied, "She said that she would be running some errands this afternoon, Don't shit yourself you big baby." he gave me one of his classic looks and threw himself down onto our long, L-shaped, overstuffed couch with a grunt. "It doesn’t matter anyway, are you going out tonight? I heard a bunch of people from school are meeting over at the cyber shack, I know I'm going. You should too, it might raise your likability score a few points if you'd loosen up a bit."

I popped open a bottle of Coke and sat down on the couch where his feet had left some room. "I have no interest in going around those people, it's only the first day of school and everyone already hates me."

"Oh that’s right," he replied with a grin, "Gay-oba? Don't give yourself so much credit, you haven't been there long enough to say people hate you. Besides, it's just a bit of ‘new kid initiation.’”

I smacked his leg with such force for the Gay-oba comment that he laughed even harder than he usually did when I attempted to defend using my girly strength. He threw his feet up onto my lap and propped his head up with his hand, "Let me tell you something my dear little twin brother, you are but an apple in the tree of high-school..."

"Oh God." I replied as I threw myself into the back of the couch, trying hard not to spill my drink onto the ugly yellowish carpet. It's not like it would have hurt the crappy old carpet, it's just that Grams took such pride in everything that she owned, even in her "the sixties took a piss on my floor" carpeting, not to mention every other broken down old piece of junk in the house. That was just her.

"No, no, no, hear me out. You are just an apple okay, an unripen new apple in the tree of high-school. There are many stages of apples, there are the new baby apples, the slightly adjusting apples, the apples that are still a little unripe, and the nice, fresh, ripe apples. The older you get in high-school, the better you get, that is just how it works. No apple steps into the tree of high-school perfectly ripe."

As much as I hated to admit it, and as stupid as his apple metaphor was, he was making a lot of sense. Maybe I wasn't a total loser after all. "Yeah, well that still doesn’t help the fact that people are assholes to me, ripe or unripe."

"Well that is where the other group comes in," he said folding his hands dramatically to mock the T.V therapist shows that Grams sometimes watched, "Last on the list are the rotten apples. They sit on the ground and stink the place up for everyone else because they hate who they are. The thing is, Aoba, they eventually go away, and you just continue to get better." 

I looked over at him in amazement, he had never tried to help me when I felt bad, he had only tried to make my life harder. "Sei?" I said to him.

"What?" He took my Coke out of my hand and drank what was left of it.

"I don't know...but...thanks...that actually helped." I looked down at my shoes that I had kicked across the floor and then placed my focus on studying my blue and white socks. "I am glad to have you as a brother."

"Damn right you are." He laughed, as he sat up and smacked me in the face with one of Gram's frilly white couch pillows, "I'm gonna go find something to eat, go do something not lame." With that he stood up and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving me with my thoughts. After a few seconds of silence I finally stood up and decided to go read for a while. I had never really been much of an exciting person. Most of my friends consisted of book characters and people I made up in my writing. Even as a child I had never really made friends. Grams had always told me that I was just too smart for kids my age, I always had to set out my toys in a specific order (on the rare occasion that I played) and I would plan out every detail of what I was going to do before I did it. Aside from making me a total reject, this skill had made me a slightly decent writer, and this is mostly how I filled my time.

I picked a book up from my shelf and placed myself upside-down in my reading chair, another one of my retarded quirks, and was hardly through a few pages before I heard Sei making his way up the stairs towards my room. I dropped my book, not wanting to once again hear the lecture on how I needed to come out of my fantasy world, and I flopped my arms deadly to the floor. Sei appeared in my door way eating a sandwich a few seconds later.

"For the love of God Aoba, didn't I tell you to do something that wasn't fucking stupid and worthless?"

I took a moment to study him the way I saw him, upside down. He continued to give me a flat look until I flipped upright and hoisted myself out of the chair, "You have a better suggestion?" I asked his with an unamused tone. He looked at me and ran his sandwich free hand through his hair, "uh, yeah, I need you to go next door and see if the neighbor can help us fix the stove. Grams has been on me to get it fixed all week, but...yeah, you know." he took another bite of his sandwich and raised his eyebrows at me. I read this as code for, "Grams told me to do it but now I am putting it off on you again like always." With a heavy sigh I made a dramatic scene of flopping my way downstairs and collecting my shoes once more. Sei obviously didn't care, he brushed his crumbs off onto the floor and assumed his mid-afternoon television watching position.

Our neighborhood was perfect. Like, the kind of perfect that you see in those movies that depict one of those families with the lawyer mom and dad and the cheerleader and football player kids. Every home was painted white, every lawn was perfectly cut and brilliantly green, and every single house was exactly the same. It was a suburb at its finest, the only strange fact being that all the driveways were gravel instead of pavement.

Our house was located at the very end of the cul-de-sac and right next door lived our life-long neighbor, Koujaku. We had known him for what seemed like forever because his parents had moved to the area when they were young and Grams had practically lived there her whole life. I had spent many a night at the neighbor’s house when Grams had needed a break, but as Koujaku grew older, we spent less and less time together.

He was a few years older than me, I was sixteen and he was twenty-one, but that had never stopped us from being closer than brothers. A few years ago, when Koujaku had turned nineteen, his parents had moved away for a business trip and decided to stay there. He had been on his own ever since. Aside from when he was working, he had made it a daily routine to check on Grams while Sei and I were at school, most likely to fill the gap that his family had left him with. He was like a son to her, and I had always been grateful to him.

I paid close attention to the feeling and the sound of gravel crunching under my feel as I approached the end of our driveway and turned onto our neighbors. It was always kind of quiet in our neighborhood, so I took pleasure in hearing some sort of sound. However, the best sound in the world to hear had to be the sound of Koujaku tinkering with his car. Every day, or so it seemed, he would lay in his driveway and mess with his car; I never really knew what he was trying to do since I understood nothing when It came to things with four wheels. I must admit though, his car was amazing to look at. It was a lime green, sixty-six Chevelle with a black streak down the hood, he had it painted that way. He had gotten in trouble with the other members of the neighborhood several times for revving the engine loudly, but I enjoyed the sound personally.

"Hey," I greeted him as he slid out from under the car. His long hair was pulled back into a ponytail and there was grease streaks marring his face and blending with the tattoo that ran down his arm. At first sight, Koujaku seemed like the kind of guy that most children would run away from in fear, but when you got to know him, he was a very likable person.

"What can I do for you Aoba," he responded with a half grin. "Mess something up again?"

I scowled at him and brushed a strand of my bright blue hair out of my eye, "No you ass, the stove broke down again."

He laughed softly and wiped his hands off on an old rag as he began making his way to the garage for his tool kit, "You know, your hair has gotten pretty long, my offer still stands for that free cut if you want it."

Koujaku, although seeming barbaric with his constant manly tool work, was actually a professional hair dresser and had been dying to get to my hair for years. I refused to let anyone touch my hair, even Grams, after my mom had gone. I had always been self-conscious about it because of its odd color, but mom had made me feel better about it every time I was upset. She was the only one who understood how I felt, she was the only one that I every let touch it.

I looked at the ground and he cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Anyway...let’s fix that stove." He put a hand softly on my shoulder, as if he could read my mind. "Oh yeah, how was school? Meet any new friends?"

We walked slowly down his drive and back into mine and I took some time before I answered him. "It was...ok. The history teacher was kind of weird. He goes onto these rants about the treatment of Native Americans and how ungodly of an injustice it was to take their land away." Koujaku let out a loud laugh.

"Well, we all have our battles." I watched my feet in the gravel once again and I could feel his eyes on me. "Are you sure nothing else happened?" He asked with a tenderness in his voice.

"No...I think it's just going to take a while to get adjusted, you know?"

"Yeah, I understand that. Oh, and don't forget," he replied quickly "Grams knows how you struggle with math, she has already set it up for me to help you with it this year." He reached for the door and pushed it open as if he belonged there, and in a way, he sort of did, he was like the out of place man of the house.

I sighed, realizing that there was no point in arguing with him, or Grams. I was bad at math, but I hated wasting the time trying to do it. "I don't need a tutor." I replied sharply.

"Tough." That was all he said before kicking off his boots and going into the kitchen.

Sei appeared from the living room, pulling on a jacket and making a bee-line for the door, "Hey Koujaku, thanks for the help." Koujaku responded with a sort of grunt from the kitchen and Sei turned to me, "I'm going out. Tell Grams I will be home by curfew." Before I could even respond he was out the door and on his way down the drive. Grams didn't like the idea of either one of us driving yet, so whenever we went somewhere, we went on foot.

"Go with him." Koujaku said to me, looking up from the stove, "It will be good for you. I would usually never say that about a teen party, but for someone like you..."

"You mean a lame ass like me." I laughed. "Besides, it's a school night, on the second day of the school year." I protested. 

"Boom, lame ass," He teased, "What kind of a teenage kid argues to _not_ go to a party. Maybe it will make you less of a lame ass."

I looked at him with pleading eyes, hoping that he was kidding, but he only held my glare intently, "Go, I will tell Grams not to worry. Also," he said with a scowl, "Change out of that shirt, you look like you sell Oscar-Myer Wieners for a living."

I looked down at my yellow and red striped shirt that I had pulled on after school and matched his scowl, "I do not, this shirt is nice."

"Nice if you want to be known as sausage boy." he laughed, "Change it."

I stomped up the stairs and quickly pulled on the black t-shirt that I had only bought to wear for blackout day back in middle school. It had a Five Finger Death Punch insignia on it and in my eyes, I had never looked more retarded. I was going to throw it away after school spirit week, but Sei insisted on keeping it for himself. Taking the stairs two at a time, I raced out the door and ran to catch up with the quick-paced Sei that I could still slightly see the outline of down the street. 

* * *

"Well, look who decided to crawl out of the cave, my monk brother. You look like a Goth, are you trying to say something here?" Sei looked me up and down with a slightly confused look. I looked down and noticed that I still had on my black school pants. Platinum school for boys had a dress code. Black pants, a white button up, and a black jacket, which they provided. I guess I hadn’t though about changing my pants when I changed my shirt. 

"Great, something else to be mocked for." I responded flatly.

"No! It actually suits you quite well." He added quickly.

Rather shocked by his sudden compliment, I walked the rest of the way in silence, as did he. When we reached the Cyber Shack, I could feel the pit of my stomach sinking to my feet. This was the community hang out for practically ever teen in town, I had never been here, but I could already tell it was not my type of place. Loud electric dance music blasted my ears the second we walked in, and for a second, I flashed back to that morning. It was basically the same routine; Sei abandoned me, and I was left to fend for myself in a strange place.

The Cyber Shack was about the closest thing to a club that teens could get. Although it wasn't dark and covered in strobe lights, it had blaring music, a bar, (for serving food rather than drinks) high-tech video games, and booths scattered through-out the place. I made myself as comfortable as I could at a booth and ordered a drink. I really wasn't sure what else to do.

I spotted Mizuki across the room with some of the other more popular guys from the school. Mizuki, so I had heard, was captain of the football team and had more money than most humans would know what to do with. In our younger years, he had been the closest thing to a friend that I had ever had, but now, I was sure that he didn't even know I was alive. He caught me staring from across the room and raised his eyebrows. I assumed it was because I dared to touch his holy face with my lowly eyes. He made a motion with his hand, that at first I was too dumbfounded to realize what it meant, but then it dawned on me that he wanted me to come over to him.

"Hi." I said awkwardly when I managed to make my way through the horde of people.

"Hey," he responded. "Never thought I would see you here, no offence but you’re kind of a book worm. What brings you out of the library?"

Trying to over-look his obvious sarcasm I nodded and responded, "Just trying something new?" The response came out more like a question, but he took it with a nod.

"Good for you." He gave me one more look over and I finally realized that he was looking at me because of my clothes, not because I was violating his holiness with my presence. After a moment of deciding whether or not to say something regarding my clothes, I chose not to and stood silently listening to the conversation he was having with the other jocks about his girlfriend's ass. Having nothing to contribute to such a conversation, considering I had never dated anyone, I turned to walk away and found myself running smack into someone's back. I shook my vision clear and looked up with a rock in my stomach.

"Well, if it isn't the football player and his cheerleader!" Noiz proclaimed without a hint of a smile. "When did you two become such love birds?"

I swallowed hard and tried not to make eye contact. Although he was an ass, I still kind of felt bad for the way I had acted earlier.

"What are you doing around here?" Mizuki said with a threatening tone, "I thought we got rid you assholes the last time you showed your faces here." He bared his teeth and cracked his knuckles as if he was ready to fight, but Noiz simply examined his finger nails and flicked his eyes up slightly at him.

"Well you know what they say, what goes around comes around."

Mizuki stared at him flatly, "that doesn’t even make any sense. Just get out."

Noiz's tongue played with the stud in his lip as he stared Mizuki down with his sharp green eyes, "Fine, come on Gay-oba, let’s get out of here."

I stood in shock between the two teens who continued to lock eyes intensely. It was as if at any second, one of them would strike. "I...I don't..." I stuttered at his sudden command.

"He isn't going anywhere with trash like you, are you Aoba?" Mizuki flicked his eyes down at me and back up at Noiz.

"What, is he your little pet now? Like the rest of your friends? You think you can buy everyone’s obedience with your cash, Tch." he spat.

I suddenly realized that this was more of a battle of lifestyles than it was of two people disagreeing. Noiz had probably been called names his whole life because of the way he looked, and most likely who he was in general. I wasn't sure exactly who he was, but I knew that I felt more guilt for the way I had treated him earlier than I had before. "Noiz...I..."

"Aoba, don't worry about him, if he doesn’t leave in a few seconds, I will deal with him myself."

"And by himself, he means he will sic his body guards on me. Don't worry, I have no reason to stay around this place." He lowered his eyes to mine for a split second and then turned around to walk away.

Mizuki gave a self-confident smirk and smacked me on the back, "You see Aoba, when people are trash, you just have to treat them like trash, and throw them out like trash."   

I stood there frozen, not quite sure what move I should make next. "Yeah...I guess your right..." Half dazed, I walked away slowly and searched for Sei. "I want to go home." I proclaimed to him with a whine when I had scoped him out, "I really don't feel so good. 

"We literally just got here two hours ago. If you want to go home, go by yourself." he snapped. I found it hard to believe that it had been two hours, it only felt like a few seconds. I walked out the door and sat on a bench outside, listening to the muffled bass of the blaring music inside. The only light was from a flickering street lamp a couple of feet away and I felt a sharp stab of anxiety.

When I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called Koujaku to come and pick me up, I knew he could tell by my voice that something was wrong, at least he would be there almost immediately. Staring down at the screen of my phone I put a hand into my hair and tried to erase the thoughts that were pounding in my brain, when something caught my eye a couple feet away. Noiz was making his way across the parking lot and off into the dark. I don't know why I did it, but it just kind of happened.

"HEY!" I yelled as loud as I could.

He froze and turned his head over his shoulder, "What?" he replied so low that I almost didn't catch it at such a far distance. Thankfully he didn't wait for a reply, probably because he knew that I was about as big of a chicken shit as they came. He made his way slowly back towards where I sat and I stared at the ground, listening to the sound of his approaching footsteps on the pavement.

"I just wanted to say..." I began when he was in hearing range, "That I am sorry for what I said earlier...you’re definitely an asshole...but you didn't deserve any of that..." refusing to look up at him, I watched as his feet moved and he sat on the very far side of the bench I was on, "Don't worry about it." he responded with what almost seemed like a hint of emotion in his voice.

"No...The stuff Mizuki was saying...it got me thinking...I don't want to be a judgmental prick like him..." I ran my hand through my hair and reached for the hairband that I usually kept around my wrist, pulling my hair up into lopsided pony tail before I even had a chance to think of the comments that Noiz would produce from my actions. However, he stayed silent, even with this wonderful chance at making a gay joke about my girly hair.

When I looked up at him, he was watching me with a flat look on his face. I would swear that the boy had literally only one facial expression, at least only one that I had ever seen. He opened his mouth to say something but apparently changed his mind and began tugging at one of the piercings in his ear. After a few seconds he put his hands between his knees and hung his head, "I like your shirt."

"...Thanks..." I said silently. I observed the way he looked at the moment. He was wearing a neon green tank-top with black stripes, a pair of black jeans, black and neon green Vans, and a black sock-hat. The cooler kids may have called it a beanie or whatever, but Grams had always called them sock-hats. The street light made his skin appear unusually pale and it glistened off of the steel piercings covering most of his body. I now noticed that he had studs in his hands as well, and while he was talking, since I actually looked him in the face earlier, I noticed the small silver stud on the tip of his tongue. Apparently without me noticing he had turned and been watching me study him, and when I finally came out of my daze, I flushed and looked away.

"Sorry..." I began to apologize, but he cut me off with a wave of his hand.

"Um, I was actually going to ask you something earlier..." he said, never taking his eyes off of mine, but as he parted his lips to finish his statement his eyes darted towards the road and he suddenly sat frozen with his mouth slightly open. My eyes followed his line of vision and I recognized Koujaku's Chevelle turning the corner into the parking lot.

"Is that...your ride...?” Noiz asked with an almost lustful tone to his voice.

"Yeah," I replied as Koujaku pulled into the parking lot and stepped out of the car, "That’s my neighbor, he came to pick me up."

Noiz looked him up and down then scoffed as he jerked his head bitterly to the side, "Neighbor? More like Gay-bor am I right? Look at him."

I put my hand on my face and shook my head. "Really...is that just a thing with you?"

"Tch." he responded, standing suddenly and putting both of his hands into his pockets. "Bye."

"Wait, you’re just going to walk home by yourself?"

He looked at me as if I had lost my mind, "Um...yes? Is that a problem, mother?"

I looked at the ground again and felt my face turn red, "No, I mean...I was just..." At that second Koujaku had finally reached us and was eyeing Noiz suspiciously, "Friend of yours, Aoba?"

I glanced at Noiz who was checking his nails again and I felt my face get red, "Koujaku..."

"Ok, never mind. You need a ride?" he gestured towards Noiz, who for half a second had a sudden look of surprise as his eyes darted nervously over to the car, but he only shook his head in response and looked back at his shoes. "Nah, I'm good, thanks."

"Alright then, let’s go Aoba." He turned on his heel and headed back to the car, but before he got out of range, Noiz looked up at him, "Hey...nice car...did you paint it those colors? I know there wasn't a model made like that..."

Koujaku stopped and turned slightly to face him, "Yeah...I'm gonna guess you like the color scheme..." he stated with a small laugh.

Noiz nodded, looking down at his clothing, "yeah, I guess." I tugged at a loose strand of hair hanging in my face as the two guys stood awkwardly for a short time, when finally Koujaku turned and walked back to the car.

"Night..." I said to Noiz as I followed towards the car.

"Night, Gay-oba," he mumbled and I felt his eyes follow me all the way to the car.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gays. <3 :3 :D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Koujaku is love and life in this chapter. Please appreciate him :D He and Aoba have several bonding moments, (Hint hint, wink wink, know what I mean?) THERE ARE JOKES! Idk, just read it.   
> X"D  
> <3

“So…was that a friend of yours?” Koujaku asked as he guided the Chevelle slowly down the night-emptied street. His face scrunched up slightly at the suggestion, but I didn’t take it as anything, he tended to do this when he asked question that he wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to. 

 “I don’t really know if I would call him a friend…” I had tried to make my peace with him but I really wasn’t sure what the status with him really was, he was quite hard to read.

 “Um…I’m not sure how to ask this, but is he a… ‘Friend?’ you know?” he squirmed in his seat slightly and darted his eyes in my direction. It was hard to see his facial expressions in the dark, the only light was from the occasional passing street light by the road.

 I really was not sure what he was trying to say, “Um…Koujaku…what are you trying to ask me here?”

 He slammed his head on the steering wheel and groaned with frustration. “Ok…so sometimes, people…ugg, no wait.”

 I stared at him with the most confused look I had probably ever given someone in my life. “Wh…what the hell are you trying say?” I laughed.

 “Ok…Aoba, are you dating or…wanting to date Noiz? Like is he hitting on you?”

 “Kouj….What the…what the hell!” I grabbed the side of my seat and felt my face turn beet red, “I’m not! He…HE’S NOT GAY! HE MAKES FUN OF PEOPLE BEING GAY!”

 “Aoba…I am going to be totally honest with you…” He looked at the road without moving his eyes and I could see the tint of red spreading across his face, “Do you know what a bundle of sticks is called?”

 “Uh…a faggot?” I looked at him with a hint of amusement and prompted him to continue, even though I already knew where he was going with this.

 “Yeah, that’s Noiz.” The look on his face was completely serious and I tried to be respectful, but left it at that and I couldn’t help but laugh.

 “Koujaku! He is not gay!” I was laughing so hard at this point that I could barely breathe, half out of embarrassment and half for some reason that I could not explain.

 “Aoba, come on, I can tell when someone is gay, and that boy…is a borderline rainbow shitter. He just doesn’t show it like some people do.”

 I sat in silence and listened to the sound of the world outside the car. He had taken the long way home, obviously because he had been planning on this conversation.

 “Koujaku…?” I asked after thinking for a while.

 “Yeah?”

 “I hope you don’t take this wrong…but…are you gay?”

 “Why do you ask?” His expression changed suddenly and he glanced over at me.

 “Well, you just seem to know a lot about people and their…preferences…so I just assumed…”

 “Ok, number one, never assume anything, you know what they say about assuming. Number two, yes. I am gay.”

 He didn’t seem extremely phased by the fact that he had just come out to me, even though we had known each other since we were kids. Also, I didn’t know what he meant about the assuming thing.

 “I know I am not always right though, it’s not fair for me to judge the boy. All I can claim is first hand intuition. I am not a mind reader by any means...I guess what I am trying to say is...be careful.”

 I didn't mean to, but I laugh lightly at his sudden concern, "I don't think you have to worry about him getting me pregnant Koujaku." By the look on his face I could tell he wasn't joking around, “okay.” I responded, even though I honestly wasn’t sure what he was expecting. I hadn’t even really considered how I should have responded to his answer either. Before I had a chance to even think about it, we had pulled up in my drive.

 “Get out of my car you little troll.” He said looking down at the steering wheel with a big grin on his face.

 “Goodnight.” I laughed in response, and slammed the car door in the way I knew he hated.

 I realized when I stepped inside that I had forgotten a big detail that day, I had not even thought about where my dog had been. When I walked in the door, I was greeted by frowning Grams and an unhappy Ren.

 “You left the door unlocked again! How many times do I have to tell you to lock the God damned door!” She smacked me on the back of the head with a huff and threw Ren at me, “You have to be the best pet owner I have ever met, you didn’t even realize that he was gone today.”

 I did have to admit, I usually did not lock the door when I left, but I neglected to tell her that Koujaku was the one to blame since I technically owed him one. Ren, on the other hand, I did feel quite guilty about. I scooped him up from the floor and nuzzled his soft fur with my nose,

 “Sorry buddy.” I crooned to him, but his stubborn dog instincts would have none of it. I had literally walked right past him that morning and didn’t even think twice about his trip to the vet that morning.

 “Forgive me?” I asked as I stroked his ears and Grams walked into the living room, mumbling something about my ridiculous clothing. My only response from Ren was him sneezing and then taking a piss on my shirt.

 “Goddamn it, Ren.” I chucked him out onto the front stoop and ran up the stairs to change out of my ugly, pissy shirt. I forgave him by the time I came back down stairs in my P.J’s, but I still had to fight the urge to wrap his head in the shirt and let him enjoy the gift he had given me.

 “Night Grams.” I called into the living room as I made my way up the stairs with Ren under one arm.

 “Yeah.” She responded, as she usually did when she was watching something and didn’t want to be interrupted.

 Sei had made his way in about an hour after I had arrived, and he was laying on my bed when I walked into the room.

 “Have you ever thought how a dog would react if you pissed on it like they piss on people?” I asked in all seriousness. I chucked Ren, once again, onto the bed and pulled out my writing note book.

 “Um…I can’t say that I have Aoba.” He stroked Ren’s ears, and in return of the gesture, Ren commenced humping his leg viciously.

 “What the fuck you little creep?” Sei picked him up by the scruff of the neck and tossed him off the bed. “Your mutt is as big of a freak as you are. With apparently the same amount of pent up sex drive.”

I ran my finger over the spine of my notebook and laughed. Ren did make a habit of using people as his stress relief object. I, however, flushed at the thought of him thinking I had a sex drive. Aside from jacking off in the shower a few times, I had never even considered sex, or being in a relationship for that matter. I decided a long time ago that I was asexual anyway.

“Um…Goodnight Sei.” I opened one arm towards the door in a nicer way of saying ‘Get the fuck out’.” He exited with a sigh and shook his head.

“I actually thought that you might have some fun and meet someone at the hang out tonight.”

I closed the door behind him and sat down on the edge of the bed. I enjoyed writing when I was stressed or confused, so I began sketching out some characters for a new plot. I sketched mindlessly as the thoughts of the day flooded my mine. I thought back to the Cyber Shack, sitting out on the bench with Noiz. I thought about the things Koujaku had said. I thought about Grams, and how much I wanted her to be happy.

My eyes began to get heavy and I laced my fingers through my hair, before I stood up to cut the lights out, I glanced down at Ren sleeping soundly at my feet and smiled. I tried not to wake him as I picked up my notebook and walked over to the shelf, taking a moment to look at the picture that I had absentmindedly sketched. A smile drew to my face as I noticed its features.

* * *

 

 “The sun needs to not exist.” Grams usually tolerated my whining quite well, but this morning she was in a particularly crappy mood.

“Can you ever do anything besides bitch like a little girl, Aoba? Jesus Christ!” She threw a plate down in front of me and I gave Sei a questioning look from across the table.

“Is everything okay Grams?” It was not unusual for her to yell at me for things in the morning, I usually was a whiny little bitch, but something was different this morning.  She refused to acknowledge my question with anything more than a grunt and began washing dishes in the sink as Sei and I finished up our plates.

“Don’t worry about me,” she said suddenly, with a tone of guilt in her voice, “I’m sorry for snapping at you, my back has been acting up, I’ll be fine though.”

“Grams, I am going to stay home with you today.” I was not kidding. I had been so worried about her lately; getting a little behind in school was the least of my worries.

“Hell no,” she snapped, “Your responsibility is to go to school; I said not to worry about me.”

Although she pretended to be tough, I could tell by the look on her face that she appreciated my concern. Sei glanced over at her and picked up his plate.

“I think you just need a day off Grams, let him help you.” Although Sei usually frustrated me with his volunteering of skills, this time I agreed with him.

“Tch” Grams looked at me and sighed softly. “I am not telling you to stay home.”

This was her way of saying that I could stay if I wanted, and of course I was going to, so as Sei grabbed his bag and prepared for the grueling hike to school, I placed myself in the comfy corner of the couch and pulled up a blanket.

The look he gave me was slightly hard to read, I am pretty sure it was a mix of thanks and hate, but mostly hate for having a relaxing day off while he went to school. I was not quite sure why he disliked school though, he seemed like he had been there his whole life. We were the same age, in the same grade, but he acted as if he had been going to the high-school forever. 

Grams looked over at Sei with a sigh picked the keys up off the small key rack next to the door.

“You can drive today…it looks like rain.” She threw the keys at him and he caught them, looking at them as if she had given him the map to el Dorado.

“Grams….thank…”

“Shut up,” she snapped, “Just try not to die.”

Sei jumped with excitement and hugged her before running out the door.

“God, break my spine a little more than it already is.” Her tone sounded grumpy, but I could tell she was pleased to see him happy for once.

“Well,” I took my time to stretch luxuriously before getting up and heading to the kitchen, “I am going to make us some tea.”

Being home was something that I enjoyed much more than going out of the house. If it was up to me, I would never leave my house, or my room for that matter. I realized that I was about to have a day without being bullied, made fun of, or stalked by awkward foreign exchange students.

 My hands shook slightly as I measured out the components for the tea and I realized that for some reason I was feeling nervous.  _“Maybe I am just worried about getting behind?”_

As if on cue, Koujaku barged through the door and into the living room with Grams, “Is everything ok? I saw Sei leave without you and Aoba.”

He never really thought about his words before he said them, or how creepy he managed to sound either.

“We are fine, stalker.” I proclaimed from the kitchen, and was not surprised when he walked in and approached me.

“Aoba,” He said, rubbing his forehead, “What have I told you about staying out of school to take care of her…”

I refused to meet his stare and continued to concern myself with watching water boil. I knew what he was going to say, he had said it so many times before.

“You know I am here, you know that I would never let anything happen to her…” He had left his long hair unbound and it fell across his shoulders like a waterfall of dark, midnight blue ink, I noticed because he often played with the tips of it when he got nervous. This was one of those times. He tugged at his black tank-top and I noticed that he had been working on the car again, due to the amount of grease smeared on his jeans.

“You guys are like…the only family I have. I would never let anything happen to any of you.” He balled his fist up and looked away from me,

“It is your responsibility to go to school.” He turned sharply and began to walk away.

I found myself staring at him with guilt ripping at my heart, and I wasn’t quite sure why. I reached out and touched his hand softly, taking it into mine, and he stopped and looked at me with surprise.

“We appreciate you…” I looked at the ground and mumbled.

“Aoba…I have been wanting to talk to you about something for a while now…” His eyes grew hard and I tried to look away, but he held my gaze.

“What is it…?” my heart was pounding and I almost knew in my soul what he was going to say, I just wasn’t sure how I was going to respond.

“Come with me.” He turned briskly and took his hand away from me.

I grabbed a cup from the cupboard and poured some tea for grams so quickly that I almost spilled it everywhere.

“Here Grams, I’ll be right back.” I handed her the cup and tried not to notice the suspicious look on her face as I grabbed my jacket and headed out the door. He had already made it out the door and over to his house before I even had time to collect myself, and when I arrived in his driveway, he was under the hood of his car cranking away at some shiny metal part.

“Hey…” I greeted him softly.”

He looked up from under the hood and glanced at me,

“Hey.” Slamming the hood he made his way around and opened on of the doors, busying himself with something under the steering wheel.

I could tell that he was not ready to talk, so I walked around to the other side of the car and sat in the passenger seat.

“Why are you always working on this car? I find it hard to believe that it needs fixed every time you drive it.” I laid my head against the smooth leather and watched his shoulders move as he worked quietly.

 “It’s not that it needs fixed all the time, I just like to think that the more I work on it, the better I can make it.”

 I looked at him and felt a pounding in my head, _“Why will he not just tell me what is going on?”_

 He sat up and looked at me with a solemn look on his face.

 “Aoba, I’m moving away.”

 My heart sunk deep into my stomach at his words and I swallowed hard. It was not at all what I had in mind.

 “What…what do you mean? You can’t just leave…”

 “I love you guys. I love this neighborhood, and I love this town, but I am tired feeling like I don’t belong. I can’t get a job, I’m all alone, and nothing in my life is working out the way I thought it would be…so…I made a decision…”

 “Koujaku…where are you going to go? Does Grams know?” I looked at him and felt my eyes start to burn with the familiar sting of hot tears.

 “I told her about a week ago. I don’t want you to get upset Aoba, but I decided to go into the military”

 I thought that my heart had sunk as far as possibly could have gone, but I was wrong. The tears poured from my eyes and I threw myself into him, digging my nails into his tensed arm.

 “You can’t! You can’t leave me! You are the only person that has ever understood me… you’re the only person who has ever cared! What am I supposed to do now?” My tears were soaking his shirt and he placed a hand on the back of my head. I let him stroke my hair. As much as I hated people touching it I didn’t want to let him go, not now, not ever.

 My head was spinning and I shot up suddenly looking at him through tear-streaked eyes,

 “You can find a job here, I will help you, and you don’t have to be alone, you have me, I can make you happy!” I laced my hands into his long soft hair and kissed him. I had no clue what I was doing. I had no idea why I was doing it. I wasn’t gay, and I surely wasn’t gay for Koujaku, but I guess I felt that if it would make him stay, I would do anything. 

 I moved my lips softly against his and I could feel his hands shaking as he placed them on my back. I had never kissed anyone before, so I had no clue what to do now. Before I even had a chance to think about it, he pulled away and pushed me off.

 “Did…did I do something wrong?” I was shaking now.

 “No, Aoba, God….We can’t…I can’t….If anyone found out about that do you know how much trouble I would be in?” His face was red and his hands still shook as he grabbed the steering wheel.

 “No…I don’t know. You just don’t like me like that,  just say it.” I don’t know why it bothered me so bad that he had pushed me away, but I felt anger boiling up inside of me.

 “OH MY GOD! You have no clue how I feel about you!” he pounded his fist on the steering wheel and I could see his face scrunching against tears. “I have had feelings for you since we were kids…I love you Aoba…We just…we can’t be together like that…you’re too young…and you don’t feel that way about me. This is all just a misunderstanding. There are a ton of emotions going around right now.”

 We sat in silence for what felt like forever and I took the time to consider how I really felt. He had just told me he loved me…If I really had feelings for him, I would have said something back…

 “Maybe your right…I’m sorry Koujaku…I should have never put you through that…I am being such a selfish jack-ass right now. This is about you, not me.”

 He smiled at me through tear filled eyes and put a hand on my shoulder.

 “You are a stubborn-ass kid, I know you think that you can’t handle everything right now, but you are so much tougher than you give yourself credit for. Besides, it’s not like I am leaving tomorrow, it probably will not be for a quite a while, I just felt like you deserved to know the truth. I can’t always be there to protect you, as much as I want to.”

 I had to admit, I never wanted to imagine a world where he wasn’t there to protect me. Maybe I did love him, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt at this point in my life. What I did know was that I was glad to have someone who understood me like he did.

 “Let’s go before Grams thinks I kidnapped you.” He threw himself out of the car and slammed the door, and I followed him back up to the house, where we were both greeted with a strict bout of complaining from Grams, but it was tolerable enough. I was secretly thankful that no matter how odd the past hour had been, Koujaku would never make it feel awkward when we were around each other. It would be like it never happened, but in the corner of my mind, for some reason, that thought bothered me slightly.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If my heart was to sink any lower that night, it would have been coming out my ass. I stared at him with my mouth slightly open. I wanted to say something so badly, but there were no words that came to mind, at least not any that would have helped anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess what? Yeap, it's a Clear chapter! He is so freaking cute in this chapter and I love him more than life <3 Also, we start to see a wee bit of Clear and Koujaku tension and Aoba turns into a jelly little bitch, but no homo ya know :'D

It was around three-forty when Sei finally made his way through the door; there was no doubt that he had taken advantage of his four-wheeled freedom by driving all over town. I greeted him from the kitchen (as seemed to be the pattern for today) and Koujaku opened the door for him as he waltzed in swinging the keys around on his finger.

"How was your day?" Koujaku questioned with a smirk on his face. It was more than apparent to everyone that Sei had quite enjoyed his bout of freedom.

"Oh, it was ok. School, you know. What are you doing here so late?" Although he never intended to come across as rude, he simply did, and we had all learned to just let it roll off our backs, along with Koujaku.

"I am staying over for dinner." He replied as he joined me in the kitchen.

"And by that he means he is cooking dinner." Grams chimed in from the living room recliner, "He must have some kind of short term memory loss, because every time I tell him to get out of here, he comes back. Just like a stray cat." She laughed at her own commentary and we all had to smile at the fact she was feeling well enough to joke with us. No one really knew what kind of shape she was in, or how long she would be with us, so everyone made the most of her presence.

There was a sudden knock on the door and Sei responded with a hand over his own face.

"I forgot to tell you...You have a visitor Aoba. He insisted on coming by, no matter how much I told him to get away from me..."

Koujaku opened the door once again and a more than exuberant Clear burst into the house with a huge smile.

"AOBA!" He cried as he ran over and gave me a big hug, "I THOUGHT YOU DIED! I WAS VERY WORRIED!"

He continued to hug me as I received a questioning look from Grams and Koujaku, Sei simply took an apple off the table and walked up the stairs to his room.

"I brought you your homework assignments, and I took all of your notes for you, and I..." He trailed off as he took a second to look around the room and noticed Grams and Koujaku for the first time.

"Oh my!" He exclaimed with sudden regret on his face, "My apologies! How rude of me not to even acknowledge your parents!"

I stared at him in disbelief, "Clear...this is my neighbor....and my Grandmother...."

"Of course!" He proclaimed with cheer, "And I am Clear!"

My eyes darted over to Koujaku, who stood with his mouth slightly open and one eyebrow rose, and then towards Grams, who looked completely un-phased by the boys strangeness.

"You are a friend of Aoba's I would guess?" Koujaku snapped himself out of his amazement long enough to respond to Clear's words. I couldn’t help but notice Koujaku's sudden deep interest in eyeing him from head to toe, and I could feel a knot forming in my stomach.

"How old are you, son?" Grams looked at him with such a sweet smile, I almost did not recognize her, "You seem older than Aoba."

I had never really taken the time to observe Clear, given the fact that I just wanted him as far away from me as possible. I took in his soft facial features and his tall, slim, yet slightly stocky build. He definitely seemed older now standing next to me than he had before.

"I'm nineteen!" he proclaimed joyfully.

"Wait...what? You're nineteen? Clear...how are you only a freshman?" Now it was my turn to stare rudely with my mouth slightly open. _"How can a nineteen year old be a freshman in high-school? That just does not happen."_

"Um...It's a bit complicated...I'm not actually a freshman, I'm a junior. I have to take freshman and sophomore classes because they considered me 'behind' compared to the other students. I'm still too old to be a junior, but I began school quite late as a child." He glanced at all of us in turn with a frightened look on his face, as if he had done something wrong.

"How could they say you are behind? You literally knew more than the teacher in our math class." I felt like my staring had become rude, so I locked my eyes on Grams to see her reaction to all of this. I refused to look at Koujaku for the mere fact that the knot in my stomach would not allow it.

"I guess the real reason is because when you come from a place like I did...people just think you are stupid." He looked at the floor and no one in the room had the guts to ask him the question I knew we were all thinking. Koujaku cleared his throat and looked at me quickly.

"Excuse me for a moment; I need to check on dinner. Please, make yourself at home Clear." Koujaku announced, and Grams shot him a look of 'This is not your fucking house', but he ignored her and paced into the kitchen quickly.

"Well you seem like a very bright boy to me." She proclaimed with a warm smile, "Why don't you and Aoba go play?"

I smacked my hand against my face at her proposal and was glad to see that Clear did not seem to have even noticed. I had to hand it to her though, it had been so long since I'd had a friend over, I guess she wasn't quite sure what I did for fun or what to say really.

Clear followed me up the stairs and into my room and I invited him to sit on the bed as I gathered the papers he had brought me and made myself comfortable at my desk.

"So, how was school today?" In the back of my mind, I realized how cheesy I sounded, but I was trying my best to impress him since now I knew not only that he was brilliant, but he was much older than me to. This mixed with the fact that I had no talent at all with talking to people, made my brain turn to shit and that shit form the words that came out of my mouth.

"It was actually quite tedious without your company." He observed his nails, much in the same way that Noiz had done so many times, and this set me thinking about another topic.

"Was Noiz there?" My stupidity continued to level up the longer I tried to talk. _"Of course he was there you dumbass, its school."_

Clear simply smiled and looked up at me. "Yes, he was there, and as square as usual."

I tried not to think too much on what he meant by square, but instead focused on the notes that he had taken for me and tried to not think about what may have happened if I had gone to school that morning. For the first time in my life, I was regretting not going to school, and I wasn't quite sure why.

I pretended to read over my notes and noticed that the bottom of the pages had drawings on them. They were beautiful sketches of ocean plants, animals, and a lot of jelly-fish. I had noticed that he sketched through most of the classes, but i had never taken the time to look at what he was drawing.

"He asked about you." His voice pierced my thoughts and I turned a bit quicker than I should have for casualty's sake.

"He?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Noiz. He asked if you had skipped school to hang out with your boyfriend, he meant Mizuki, because he was not there today either."

 He looked at me with a smile on his face and I looked back at him with a blank expression. _"Yep, sounds like something Noiz would say."_

"OH! Don't worry! I don't mind that you are gay, I dated a boy once too, I have dated girls as well!" He smiled so sweetly that his eyes squinted shut and his cheeks flushed a soft pink. He was so sincere that I almost had a hard time responding.

"Oh, no, I'm not gay Clear, He just likes to make fun of me with that."

He did not seem fazed by my response in the lest and I watched as he pulled out his phone and began scrolling through what I assumed were his text messages, I didn't have a phone, I had never had a need for one.

I took notice of the type of phone that he had also. It was an IPhone, but the type of phone was not what caught my attention, it was what was on the back of it. His phone cover was a group picture of a bunch of anime characters, and the case read in bold letters: _OHSHC_.

"Hey, Clear?" I asked him softly. He looked up from his phone and smiled at me so I continued, "What does ‘OHSHC’ stand for?"

I had heard some of the very unpopular kids talk about anime before, but I had never really acknowledged its existence due to the fact that I had a very small amount of social credit I wished to grasp onto. I could tell by the expression on his face when he glanced down at his phone case that I had made a mistake in asking.

"It only stands for the best anime in the history of anime every!" His cheeks grew flushed and he crawled to the edge of my bed with excitement. "It stands for Ouran High School Host Club; it is my favorite anime of all time!" He clutched one of my pillows and rolled onto his back with his feet in the air.

_"What demon have I summoned..."_ I thought to myself as I watched the bubbly Clear transform from his usually awkward self into a squealing fan-girl. 

I was about to excuse myself from the room by pretending that I had to take a piss, but was saved the embarrassment by Koujaku screaming up the stairs that it was time to eat. 

Once we were downstairs, Clear was making his way towards the door and I was not sure what to say. Thankfully, Grams chimed in and stopped him.

"Why don't you stay for dinner, you were a big help today to Aoba." Grams snapped her fingers at Koujaku, telling him to get another plate and he gave her a dirty look as he disappeared back into the kitchen, mumbling something about being everyone’s bitch the whole way there. 

Clear thankfully accepted the offer and moved out of the way of Sei, who turned into a ravaging beast when food was in proximity. Koujaku returned with a plate and handed it to Clear, who accepted it with a smile and sat down beside him at the table. I was forced to sit across from them and once again felt the knot threatening to arise in my stomach and ruin my meal. Anytime that I attempted to eat a meal with my stomach even slightly upset, the tribulations were much harsher than anybody would prefer; however strangely, every time I got upset, I suddenly grew a huge appetite. It was almost like my stomach saying, "Oh, so you're hungry and you've had a bad day? Well guess what? You get to puke your asshole up for the next three hours!" 

Aside from the war raging in my small intestine though, it was a relatively peaceful meal, Grams held herself from her usual scoldings and Sei managed to not act like an ape for once. Clear seemed more than grateful for the company and good food, so we assumed that he was pleased. He and Koujaku made conversation for most of the meal, I was not really sure what about, since I was preoccupied with my own thoughts. 

  After the everyone had finished, I offered to help Koujaku clean up the kitchen, but Clear insisted in helping him and letting Grams, Sei, and I rest. I however, did not rest. I was preoccupied with trying to listen in on Clear and Koujaku's conversation like the little troll I often was, and Koujaku often made a point of telling me I was. Although I had always been a pretty territorial person, something inside of me wanted Clear and Koujaku to hit it off. Perhaps I thought that if they liked each other, it may convince Koujaku to stay. Although it was a selfish way to look at it, I couldn't help but hope it worked. 

A short while after, Clear emerged from the kitchen and wiped his hands on his pants.

"Dishes are all done!" He smiled warmly and Koujaku soon came out of the kitchen behind him.

"Well, it's late; I guess I had better get home." Koujaku pulled his old oil-stained sport jacket on and pulled me into a hug.

"Everything is going to be okay." He whispered into my ear before pulling away and looking into my eyes. Relief flooded through my body at his sudden relaxed disposition, he hadn't acted like this in a very long time, possibly since we were kids. Although I felt a strange kind of jealousy at the fact he could just get over me that quickly, I realized that, number one: I'm not gay, and number two: he deserved to be happy, even if it was with my odd foreign exchange, not freshman, friend. I also couldn't believe that I had just thought of Clear as my friend.

 "Goodnight, Grams, goodnight, Sei." He nodded his head towards the living room before turning awkwardly towards Clear and running a hand through his hair, "Night." Their eyes locked for a couple of seconds before Koujaku cleared his throat and turned, walking out the door. I watched as a smile spread across Clear's face and his cheeks flushed with the slightest rosy pink color.

Although the slightly possessive side of my brain was fighting off the urge to falcon punch the cute little smile off of his face, it was almost adorable to see Clear, the one who never seemed phased by anything, getting his feathers ruffled over a boy.

"Well," He proclaimed after suddenly snapping out of his trance, "I really should be heading home, thank you so much for your more than generous hospitality!"

Grams smiled sweetly at him and waved as I followed him out into the crisp fall night. It was only august, but sometimes our area tended to get a small cold spell for a couple of nights in the fall. Clear leaned up against the hood of his slightly exhausted station wagon and looked at me with a smile,

"I had a really wonderful time, Aoba. I haven't had a friend to spend time with since...I guess when I was a child. Your family is just great."

The moon was out that night and it shone brilliantly against his snow-white hair, picking up the silver tones and reflecting them almost angelically around him. We stood in silence as I allowed his comment to sink in, and I focused my gaze onto his slightly baggy V-neck grey sweater. He often dressed like he was from the sixties, usually wearing a sweater matched with a pair of faded jeans and high-top sneakers. The grey of the sweater made his eyes stand out with breath taking definition, and I noticed suddenly what I had never noticed before.

"I have never met a person with purple eyes." I broke the silence with the fascination webbed into my almost juvenile statement. He smiled and shook his head slightly,

"Neither have I."    

I tried to figure out what he meant by that statement, but eventually just brushed it off as pretty logical statement. Just because he had purple eyes, didn't necessarily mean he had ever met someone else that did. Aside from that thought, I was growing uncomfortable with the silence, so I figured there was no time like the present to turn an awkward silence, into an awkward conversation.

"You have a crush on Koujaku, don't you?" Once again, my juvenile way of speaking caused me to regret ever opening my mouth, he was nineteen, nineteen year olds didn't get 'crushes', they fell in love; or at least I thought.

His face was calm, and surprisingly, he didn't even flush in the slightest bit,

"Yeah, Aoba. Yeah, I guess I do have a crush on him." He adjusted his posture against the hood of the car and stuck his hands into his pockets with a light sigh, "I have never met someone like him. It's like he knows me better than anyone ever has, and I just met him a few hours ago." His position shifted once again and an uncomfortable look spread across his face,

"I can't be with him though, it would never work out."

If my heart was to sink any lower that night, it would have been coming out my ass. I stared at him with my mouth slightly open. I wanted to say something so badly, but there were no words that came to mind, at least not any that would have helped anything.

"Clear, Koujaku is the most understanding, compassionate person that has ever existed...whatever it is that you think would ruin it for the two of you, he probably wouldn't even care! I know Koujaku, he hasn't acted the way he acted tonight in years, it was all because of you Clear..."

"Aoba, please stop right now..." He had pulled his fist out of his pocket and balled it up slightly with frustration, "He and I are from two completely different worlds; the chances of it ever going well without someone getting their heart broken are about zero percent. Please...just let it go."

 He hung his head and I noticed a single tear escape and slide down his cheek, shimmering in the glow of the moon. I stood once again with him in utter silence and made a vow to myself. The two of them were the most self-condescending and lonely people I had ever met. No matter what I had to do, I was going to make them work somehow. Even if it meant getting my ass kicked by both of them, Koujaku was my best friend, and I finally accepted the fact that Clear was going to be as well.

I slowly walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, hoping that he was not actually angry at me. It would be just my luck, _"Way to go Aoba, you make one friend and lose them in a span of about six hours."_

He looked up at me and smiled sweetly as he usually did and I threw my arms around his neck in a tight hug.

"Everything will work out Clear, I'll make sure of it. What are friends for if they don't help each other?"

I felt his shoulders un-tense and he wrapped his arms around me as well,

 "Thank you, Aoba. That means more than you will ever know." He pulled away and took his keys out of his pocket, "Just don't make any promises that you can't keep."


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trash-bags.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys. I am going to apologize in advance for any grammatical issues in the story. I literally have not had time to go through and proof it but I promise I am going to later. For now, I Just wanted to get it posted. I really hope you like this chapter, we learn a lot of new stuff about Noiz and there is a bit of a surprise at the end :D It is most likely going to start taking me a little bit longer to post because...well...I am 17 and I have to work and stuff. Soooooo....ENJOY! <3

School was very strange the next morning. It was like I had missed one day, and the whole place had slipped into some kind of parallel universe. Clear greeted me cheerfully at the entrance and I managed to get to class without the ridicule of a certain bedazzled someone, strangely enough. He did, however, show up to class about five minutes late as he had done before, and I actually found myself making eye contact with him as he looked at me from across the room. He looked at me as if I had risen from the dead, and then for some reason, refused to acknowledge my existence for the rest of class.

 Professor Mink spent most of the class spewing saliva everywhere as he went on a rant about the French and Indian war, so I rested my chin in my palm and watched Clear sketch one of his ocean scenes onto his notes.

 In total honesty, most of the next three weeks went exactly the same. In fact, they were so similar, that I could hardly tell the difference. I got up, went to school, came home, studied with Koujaku, and now sometimes Clear, and went to bed. Sei, on the other hand, seemed to be living the life he had always dreamed high-school life to be. He had become close friends with Mizuki, much to my disapproval, and was now thinking about trying out for football.

 Although I was perfectly fine with flying under the radar at school, one fact seemed to be bothering me much more than it should have; Noiz hadn’t bothered to taunt, tease, or even speak to me after the night at the Cyber Shack. I thought very little about him, until one Friday, three or four weeks after school had started.

 "Aoba, I need to stay after school for about thirty minutes today to talk with one of the teachers." Clear stuffed his papers into his backpack and threw it onto one shoulder with a huff, "I promise, I will be as fast as I can."

 I really didn't have much of a choice, seeing as he was my ride home, so I just nodded and received a smile from him as he jerked himself around quickly and paced off down the hall towards what I would guess to have been Professor Mink's classroom.

 The halls were already starting to become empty, with only a few people scattered around the lockers here and there, so I figured I would go out in search of Sei. He was supposed to be around the locker rooms with Mizuki, since he was trying out for football today. It was that time of year again. The sign-ups for sports often brought out the worst in people who were fighting for the prime spots on the teams. I had no interest in sports to say the least; the bigger, more competitive guys would snap me like a twig if I so much as looked at them wrong. Dying from being punted like a football was not on my bucket list.

 To get to the locker rooms you had to go all the way across campus, over to the football field, and somehow manage to find the right building out of the seven-hundred that were in that area. I had never been over there before, and honestly had no desire to go now. If I had any desire to be suffocated by the overpowering scent of sweaty man-flesh and be teased for my delicate body structure, I could always just go next door when Koujaku had just finished one of his 'I am man' workouts.

 I stopped in the grass between two buildings which I believed at least one to be the locker room for the football team. _"Left or right?_ I inquired of myself, before deciding to take a left towards the bigger building.

 As I approached the doors, I could hear the faint trill of a whistle on the other side and almost chickened out of going inside. When I did open the doors, however, I realized I had indeed made the wrong turn. I was greeted not with the stench of sweaty man-flesh, but instead with the sting of powerful chemicals and chlorine. I had landed myself right in the middle of swim team tryouts.

 Before I could even think to turn around and walk out, I was grabbed by the arm and ushered inside roughly,

 "If you would have been one more second late you wouldn't have made it!" A rather frightening man loomed over me and shoved me towards the locker rooms as I tried my best to protest,

 "I'm...I'm not here to, I got lost and..." He stopped suddenly and turned me to face him,

 "Spit it out boy!"

 "I'm not here to try out, I'm here because I go lost looking for the football locker rooms." I felt a cold swat running down my back as the boys huddled around the edges of the pool stared at us with questioning faces.

 "Well, I guess you made a mistake then didn't you? Well here's the thing, I hate football, and you interrupted my training, so guess what boy? You are gonna sit right up on those bleachers and miss your pretty little football tryouts!" He shoved me in the direction of the bleachers and turned back towards his position at the head of the pool with briskness to his step.

 I sat obediently about half way up the bleachers and for the first time ever, silently wished I had a phone to call Clear. About ten or fifteen minutes later, the boys started to file out of the locker room and take their positions along the opposite side of the pool from the loud instructor. I noticed that there were not many of them there at all, probably about nine or ten at the most.

 The instructor raised his hand to silence them and began with a loud announcement,

 "As most of you know, there will not be a draft to decide the team this year. Because so few people have tried out, you will all automatically make the team. Here are the rules. I will be assessing your skills and weaknesses to determine your position on this team. How I plan to do this, is when I call your name, you will dive, swim a lap to the end and back, and exit the water. You may use whatever method of swimming that you find suitable to your strengths." He raised one hand into the air and glanced at his paper, "Ready? Dive!"

 A rather slim and athletic boy dove into the water and sped through the course as if he had been born to do so. I was captivated with the line-up up fast and agile boys that made their runs the second he called off their names. I was so captivated, in fact, that it nearly took my breath away from shock when I heard the second to last teen's name shouted,

 "Noiz, dive!"

 I sat paralyzed as I watched him jump aggressively into the water and rip through the course faster than any of the competitors on the team. As he pulled himself up out of the water, the coach smacked one hand on his clipboard with a huge smile,

 "HOT DAMN SON! NOW THAT WAS SOME SWIMMING! YOU'VE GOTTEN EVEN BETTER SINCE LAST YEAR!"

 Noiz refused to even acknowledge the praise and grabbed a towel from one of the boys next to him. He ruffled his hair until it was mostly dry and stood up in a fluffy blond poof on his head. My heart started pounding as he dried himself down with the towel and I could feel my face getting red.

  _"It's completely normal to feel this way,"_ I proclaimed to myself as I twisted a piece of my hair between two fingers, _" I'm just having one of my jealousy bouts, I mean, I wish I looked like that, I have the figure of a sixteen year old girl."_

Noiz, on the other hand, had the figure of a seventeen year old Calvin Klein model.

 The instructor finished off the class, but I didn't even realize it until the boys were walking out the door with their bags. I stood up and made my way towards the instructor, hoping he would let me go now, but managed to spot Noiz in the group of guys huddled around the door. I wanted to say something to him, but I wasn't quite sure what. My face was getting red again, so I decided to stick with one battle at a time.

 "Can...Can I go now?" I asked quietly to the coach, who turned to me with a surprised look on his face.

 "Yeah...practice is over son." That was all the answer I needed before I made a bee line for the door, but the grabbed me by the shoulder and looked at me sternly, “Look boy, I want to apologies for all that. This year is going to be a hard one for the team, I took my frustration out on you and I am truly sorry."

 I nodded and swallowed hard, not quite sure how to react to the man’s sudden kindness after I had thought he was going to eat my soul not even an hour ago.

 "What's your name son?" He tried to muster a smile, but it was not very honest, and to be honest, it was kind of terrifying.

 "Aoba..." I managed to rasp half silently.

 "You can call me coach Haga,” I promise I am not that bad once you get on my good side." He let out a rather loud laugh and the group of boys turned to look over at us. I caught Noiz's eye as he turned and I saw all of the color go out of his face, what little of it there was.

 The rest of the boys made their way out of the building and coach excused himself to his office much quicker than I would have liked. As terrifying as he was, no one scared me more than Noiz.

 "You stalking me now Gay-oba?" He tried to come up with a snarky comment, but I could see the nervousness in his eyes, he was like a deer caught in the headlights of a truck. It was like he was afraid I was actually going to bully him now that I knew about his secret hobby. As tempting as that may have been, I swallowed my pride and tried my best to find a place to look at him where it wasn't awkward. I couldn't look him in the face without my face turning red, and I surly couldn't look anywhere below his neck without my stomach turning summersaults.

 Now that I was up-close with him, I could see how defined his body actually was. He had a very pale complexion that went quite well with his extremely slim body. He was literally about as small as I was, the only difference being that every inch of him was covered in delicate yet extremely toned muscle. He had a swimmers body in the most literal sense.

 As much as I hadn't wanted him to, he noticed my eyes looking him over and took the opportunity to make a comeback at his pride,

 "Feelin' me up with your eyes Gay-oba? I'd say take a picture, but you can't without a phone, can you?" His eyes squinted with his cocky grin and I felt my face growing hot,

 "Wait, how would you know I didn't have a phone?" I glared at him suspiciously and noticed his expression change suddenly.

 "Unless," I said with my own cocky smile, "You've been talking about me with someone?" This time his face grew red and he scowled,

 "Tch, you wish Gay-oba." He turned around and picked his duffle bag up from its place on the floor with one swift motion and started towards the door.

 I finally had him where I wanted him this time, and I didn't plan on stopping until I was fully satisfied,

 "Or maybe you were asking someone for my phone number?" I teased him joyfully as I adjusted my backpack and followed him towards the door.

 "Perhaps I'm not actually the fruity one here." I teased as we walked out the door. He laughed out loud at my comment and ran a hand through his hair,

 "You are the definition of fruity, Gay-oba, in fact, you are beyond that, you are fucking Sam the Toucan, you are the mascot of Abso-fruit-a-licous."

 I had to stop walking because at this point, I was laughing so hard I nearly pissed myself. I had not laughed that hard in so long, it almost felt strange. He was about fifteen feet in front of me and was unlocking the door to a crappy looking rust-bucket that seemed like it should not even be allowed to be on the road legally.

 "I am going to guess that you need a ride?" His eyes searched mine as I got closer to him, as if he was waiting for me to make some kind of smart ass comment about his crappy car.

 "Um...do you have a phone I could use?" As much as I wanted to leave the school as fast as I possibly could, I didn't want to just leave Clear wondering where I had gone.

 He pointed to his car with an extremely un-amused look on his face and sighed,

 "Does it look like I have the money for phone at the moment?" He shrugged his shoulders and looked at me casually, "If you would have asked about a week ago, I would not have cared, but I won't have any more money for my bill until the end of this month."

 Feeling almost guilty I accepted his offer and climbed into the passenger side of the car. He pulled on a tank-top before sliding into the car and revving the old beast to life after he had slammed the door shut with all of his might.

 "She's a bit off a pain in the ass, but so am I, so I guess it works out pretty well." With a quick grin in my direction he shifted gears and set the rolling death trap into motion.

 I was still pondering over his 'pain in the ass' comment when he turned to me and rolled his eyes,

 "Don't hurt yourself kid." I could almost swear that he was able to read my mind half the time and I was about to comment on this when he let out a loud groan,

 "I forgot, I'm gonna have to swing by my apartment before i take you home; I’ve gotta drop something off real quick." He spun the wheel around and slowly changed direction. We had only been a short distance from my house when he made this decision, but I refused to question his logic in fear of being chucked out on the side of the road somewhere.

 His apartment was only a short distance away from my house, and to be completely honest, was more like a house than an apartment. In all reality, it was actually a whole apartment complex that appeared to only be inhabited by him. He noticed the look on my face and quickly explained.

 "My parents send me money. They own this whole thing and I live here by myself." he pulled the keys out of the ignition and hopped out quickly,

 "Stay here." He grabbed a brown package out of the back and slammed the trunk.

 I finally relaxed some as I watched him disappear into the complex, but my mind, however, had different plans. I began thinking about his swimming and how he had acted after practice. It was almost like he had been afraid for anyone to know he swam, but why?

 I watched as he came out of the complex and locked the door carefully. He had changed out of his shorts and tank-top into a tee-shirt and some jeans, but his hair still lay in its luxuriously thick, air-dried layers. Aside from his piercings, he always managed to appear on the fine line between a teenage punk and a slightly neat person. He was never really trashy, his hair seemed neatly trimmed and his clothing were always clean and neat looking.

 He slid into the driver seat and cut his eyes at me momentarily,

 “Ready?”

 “Ready.” I responded casually. He pulled the car onto the main street and headed back towards my house.

  _“Why is every car ride I take so fucking awkward?”_ I tried my best to decide on something to say and settled on the worse possible idea. I have no clue how I always managed to pick the worst conversation topics ever, but I never failed to do so.

“So you like to swim?”

 “Oh my God, please don’t…” He rolled his neon eyes back and groaned with frustration.

 “No, you are really good.” I looked at him and he refused to return my gaze.

 “Tch.”

 The silence was literally painful. I was seriously considering jumping out of the car before he finally responded,

 “I don’t know…thanks I guess…” He shifted uncomfortably and I could tell he was trying not to look at me. I could also tell he was not used to receiving compliments, or responding to them for that matter.

 “Really…I don’t understand why you are so ashamed of it….you’re talented as hell…The only activity that I have ever been extremely talented in is making myself look like a huge dumbass. I don’t even have to try, the gift just comes naturally. I guess I am just lucky though, some people spend their whole lives mastering this talent.”

 Noiz cocked his mouth to the side in a little grin and laughed under his breath. It felt like a life accomplishment to make him laugh or smile, almost like when you just can’t beat the level of that stupid-ass video-game you have been playing for a month and then, when you just stop trying and say fuck it, you finally win. It felt better than winning a video game, I had accomplished something that I had not seen anyone accomplish since Professor Mink on the first day of school.

 Butterflies viciously attacked my stomach as I struggled to find my next words,

 “Does it make you happy?” I watched as his face softened slightly, just for a moment, and he turned his eyes to look at me,

 “It keeps me alive.”

 We locked eyes for a few seconds before he looked back at the road. It was almost as if he tried to talk without actually using words. I could tell he loved it, his eyes said so.

 “If I don’t get my grades up, I am gonna have to quit the team.”

 “What?” I snapped out of my trance and into a state of shock, “You can’t be making that bad of a grade…”

 “Oh really?” He threw the car into park in my drive-way and turned around between our chairs to shuffle some papers that littered the back seat. The car was small enough that he was quite invading my personal space. He smelled like some sort of cologne and I started to feel the butterflies invade my stomach once again.

 He surfaced with a piece of paper and thrust in my direction,

 “See for yourself.” He threw himself back into his seat and looked out the window with a sigh.

 I glanced over the paper in my hand and noticed the list of grades that scrolled down the left side.

 “Four D’s and three C’s, coach told me if I can’t get my grades up, I am off the team.” He pressed his forehead against the window and the car went silent once again.

 “I’m sorry…” I truly had no idea what to say, everyone knew that Noiz really did not care when it came to school, but I felt like he wanted to do better.

 “Don’t be, it’s my own fault.” He ruffled his thick blond hair with one hand and tried to smile lightly at me,

 “You can’t fix stupid.”

 His statement hurt me a lot worse than it probably should have,

 “Noiz…you’re not stupid…” I tugged at my hair nervously and stared at the dust-covered dashboard. I could feel his eyes piercing me as I struggled to continue,

 “I think I could…probably…help you…maybe?” I knew I sounded like an idiot, but I continued,

 “My neighbor…”

 “Gay-bor” he corrected.

 “Whatever,” I rolled my eyes and tried not to smile at his snarky input, “My _Gay-bor_ , has been tutoring me since I was in middle-school. I’m pretty sure he would help you.”

 Noiz tugged at one of the gages in his ear and mumbled to himself,

 “He wouldn’t do that for some random trash-bag kid, I can’t just walk up to his house and say, _‘Hey, your gay-ass, blue-raspberry fruitsicle of a neighbor said that you liked to play teacher with teenage boys, how about it?_ ’”

 I had to hand it to him, I had never met anyone who could fit so many insults in one single statement, even if it didn’t make any sense.

 “Um…okay…from now on, every day after school, you should come over and get some work done with Koujaku and I, he really does help.

 He wrapped his hands around the steering wheel and looked down at his lap pensively,

 “Okay…I’m not saying I will and I’m not saying I won’t.” We sat in silence yet again before I decided to speak again.

 “You need to start coming to class too, you have barely showed up this semester at all.”

 “Why do you even care if I fail or not, no one else does besides coach and it’s not like it is going to affect you.”

 I swallowed hard and carefully placed a hand on his shoulder. He jumped slightly at my touch and then looked at me with surprise. I couldn’t bring myself to look him in the eyes so I just looked down awkwardly and ran my free hand through my hair slowly,

 “I think that this swim team is more important to you than you want to admit. Everyone deserves to have something that makes them happy.”

 I looked up accidently and locked eyes with him, pulling my hand out of my hair. His mouth opened slightly and he leaned towards me slightly,

 “Are you getting gay with me, Gay-oba?”

 My mouth hung open and I tried to speak, but my words would not come out of my mouth. He smiled devilishly and put a hand on the back of my neck, pulling me towards him. My heart raced and I could tell that my face was a burning a crimson color,

 “Noiz…” my body went weak and I tightened my grip on his shoulder. I had never felt such a mix of fear and excitement at the same time, I thought I might throw up.

 He pressed his lips against my hair and whispered into my ear,

 “Get out of my car.”

 All I could do was sit there frozen as he pulled away from me and put his hands back on the steering wheel. Shaking, I opened the door and stepped out. Before I could close the door, he turned towards me with a smug little grin,

 “I’ll see you tomorrow after school; your house right?”

I nodded and tried not to show him how bad my hands were shaking by showing them in my pockets. He could sense my nervousness and responded in is usual Noiz manner,

 “I know you were wanting a little more, sorry to disappoint you Gay-oba.” His grin turned into a smirk and I slammed the door closed, walking up the drive to the porch. He sat in the drive watching me until I made it to the door, then he drove away.

 I threw myself onto the small out-door sofa that Grams had put on the porch and put my face in my hands,

 “What the fuck.” I stated to no one in particular,

 I pulled at my hair and rubbed my face with both hands.

 “What the fuck just happened…”

 

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I personally view this chapter as more of a meet-and-greet for the characters, so to speak. We see a little of Aoba's relationship with Grams, Koujaku, and of course, Ren. I felt that before the big explosion in chapter seven, it would be nice to slow down a bit and appreciate our soul characters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg my babies thank you so much for your incredible patience with me. I have had a very horrible and traumatic past few months and for a while had totally given up on my writing. I eventually woke up one morning and thought to myself, "Hey. you have been a writer since before you could even spell. (Seriously I have proof) So why are you going to let your shitty circumstances and shitty people take away who you are?" Well my lovely readers, I'm not letting that happen. I picked up my shitty cell phone and wrote this whole damn chapter. Trust me, it wasn't easy, and I still feel like it sucks, but I'm not letting that stop me. Ill make myself better, because I love to write. So don't mind my grammatical errors and enjoy the gaaayyyyyy <3 Stay strong babes.

I had never in my entire life been so happy to see a Saturday morning. Why? Because Saturdays were weekends, and weekends meant no school. 

My sudden introvert attitude was stemmed from one factor; the self-inflicted fear that if forced to be around noiz for even one second that day, i would probably have acted so out of my mind that he would never have wanted to speak to me again.

Mostly because I had not exactly been right in the head ever since our little mis-communication in his car a couple weeks back. 

Ever since that day I had been in emotional turmoil, whereas he seemed completely unscathed by the event. I tried my best to act normal around the boy, but I couldn't ignore those viciously attacking butterflies every time we were together. 

He had kept his word about the tutoring sessions though, so like it or not, awkward or normal, I saw him nearly every day. 

I smothered my face in my old, use-flattened pillow in a desperate attempt to suffocate out all of the horrifying fears, feeling, and regrets that gnawed devilishly at my soul in every spare second I had to think.

Thankfully, before my mind could once again relive that days happenings, I was distracted by the sound of an approaching Ren. He hopped onto the bed as he usually did in the morning aftet he had done something horrible somewhere in my room, and was headed towards my leg for an apology humping session. 

Scooping him up, I stuffed him under the covers and pulled them over our heads. As most living creatures, he didn't particularly care much for being smothered to death under the covers, but regardless, he allowed me to cuddle him and nuzzle my nose into his silky, blue-ish coat. 

As I laid there, I secretly wished that i would never be forced to leave the safety of my room and be dropped back into the unforgiving clutches of society. No one was like me. No one understood the way i thought, or the way that I saw things.

Slowly pulling the covers down, I pondered on this by looking around my room for a moment. I am not afraid even in the slightest to admit that I am unlike most teenagers. My room is solid proof of my sluggish lifestyle and dry, boring personality.

Being relatively small, with light blue walls, for some odd reason it is the only room in the house without the wonderful piss colored carpeting. I can't say that I'm not grateful for that at least. The flooring is hard wood, the windows; bare, without curtains or blinds. Every time that Grams had attempted to put some up, I had always taken them down. 

This was one of my strange quirks. One of the ticks in my closed off mind that no one had ever understood. I struggled with a constant feeling of being trapped, which was fair, considering that i was highly claustrophobic. I liked the open-aired feeling of a room without the oppressions brought on by stuffy drapery. 

Considering this fact caused me to rise from bed, with Ren under one arm, and open my window. The crisp air washed against my face and I breathed deeply, as Ren sneezed and stretched to get closer to the open window. 

I turned once again and faced the open wall to the left of my window, most of which was plastered with posters of music groups. Most people would never guess that a guy whose first thoughts in the morning consisted of mental arguments with himself about curtains, would be into rock music. Once again, i was a contradiction to myself. 

I glanced over the posters depicting the heavily tattooed, pierced, and hair-gelled characters staring back at me aggressively, and thought of Noiz. 

"Damn it." I chucked Ren onto the bed and headed downstairs towards the smell of grams cooking. If anyone could get something off of my mind, it was Grams. 

I entered the room silently and watched her hands work swiftly as she added pinches of this and that to a pot of something sitting patiently, boiling on the stove in front of her. She only stopped for a few seconds to place a delicate, yet work-worn hand on her aching lower back. A luxury she would have never taken, had she known i stood behind her watching.

Without saying anything, I padded slowly up behind her, laying a hand on her first, just to insure that I didn't startle her, then placing my chin on her shoulder and wrapping my arms around her plump waist. 

"Good morning, Grams." I said softly as she dried her hands on a towl. 

I released her from my grip and she turned to the cabinet to retrieve a couple of bowls for our meal.

"Good Afternoon, Aoba." She retorted sharply; but I could sense the love in her tone, even through her gruff exterior. 

I helped her place the steaming bowls on the table, and took note that one place setting sat empty. 

"Where is Sei?" I questioned her as I began pecking at the bits of food in my bowl. 

"He said he was going to the school for some sort of practice, I can't keep up with all his different sports anymore." She said with a huff, 

"What does he expect? The boy plays with more balls than a catholic priest." 

"Grams!" I shouted, horrified. "You can't just say things like that!" 

"Oh?" She said with a roll of her eyes,

"Who is going to do anything about it? Him?" She suggested, pointing at a drooling Ren perched and waiting for a chance at scrapps. 

I let out a nervous laugh and take into consideration that Grams never held back what she had on her mind. Ever. 

 

We continued to pick at our food for a while before i looked up and noticed the expression change on her face. 

"Grams?" I half whispered,

"Everything alright?" 

She stared at my face for a few seconds and I could tell that she was deciding her words carefully.

"Aoba...." she began slowly, looking down at her now empty bowl, 

"I know my mouth can get ahead of me at times, but I...I want you to know..." her words began to choke up in her throat and I could see the tears threatining her eyes.

"Yes." I said reassuringly as I placed my hand over hers on the table. She clutched it and continued.

"I do love you. I can't always say it, but I try." 

I stand up and walk around the table to her. 

"I know Grams. I love you too."   
She pulls me into her lap like she always did when I was a child and I take in the soft smell of her perfume as she lowers her head to my ear. 

"You're mom...I know she has to be so proud of you..." 

That does me in. I curl up like a little baby and sob hysterically into her chest. I try to think about what mom really would think of me. A loser. My only friend being a studded dolphin. My constant odd feelings towards said dolphin. There's no way she could be proud of me. 

My sobbing slowly ceased after a while, but almost as if she could read my thoughts, grams pushed me to my feet and took my face in her hands. 

"She really would be, Aoba. You're an amazing boy. Good grades. Hard worker. You support our family and make sure I don't kill myself." She let go of my face and stood up with a little help from me. 

"You are something to be proud of. I know, because I am. Now get out of here. Go do something fun, like a normal kid." 

She kissed me on the forhead and began escorting me to the front door. I could tell she had over exerted herself and needed some time to refuel alone. 

"Grams, can I at least put on some normal clothes?" 

The closed door in my face was my answer. I now knew what it felt like to be Ren. 

Standing on the porch in my pajamas, I looked next door and noticed Koujaku working on his porch, so I made my normal rout to his house.

"What are you doing?" I asked him as I stood over the bucket of paint on the porch, watching his delicate brush strokes. 

Its not that I'm actually as stupid as that question may have implied, I simply wanted to break the silenced that had fallen when my footsteps ceased their noisy ascent to his present location.

For some reason, koujaku and I hadn't really found much to discuss lately. He occasionally had to come over and help around the house, but the only time I really ever saw him was after school. Our tutoring sessions would be a great time for us to talk, but Noiz was always there with me now.   
I couldn't help but feel that koujaku was a bit jealous of Noiz, for whatever reason, but it was like having an elephant in the room. A big, blond and neon green,  
elephant. 

He stopped painting only long enough to look up at me from his knees and wipe a strand of sweat laden hair from his equally saturated for-head with the back of his wrist. The only part of him not yet smeared with white paint. 

"The decks been looking a bit worn. Figured I would spruce it up for the neighbors sake." He continued his brush along one of the old boards on the porch without another word. 

He really hated the neighbors, with their snobby dispositions and their perfect lifestyles. They all treated him like an outsider. 

"Can I help?" I asked him in a cool tone.   
"If you even know how to hold a paint brush." He said in a rough voice, tinged with a bit of teasing humor.

"Don't even start on me," I snipped back at him, 

"Why are you sweating so bad? Its not even hot outside today, and you're wearing a jacket." 

Actually it was quite the opposite of hot. There was a bit of sharp winter wind that threatened to send a shiver down my spine.

*"Thanks, Grams. If you love me so much, a coat would have been nice at least"* I complained silently to myself. 

"Oh wait, I know why," I said as I kneeled next to him and took up a paint brush, 

"Hot-Flashes. Damn, menopause is a bitch amiright?" 

His lack of response to my terrible attempt at humour both surprised and hurt me deeply. I looked back down at the porch and continued to paint wordlessly. Until a thought, out of nowhere, that had been haunting me silently for months, suddenly became clear. 

"Koujaku?" I half stated, half asked.  
"Hm?" He responded from somewhere deep in his own thoughts. 

I continued to swirl paint around on the deck, considering my sudden enlightenment. 

"You remember what you said about Noiz a while back? Something about sticks?" I question him as I continue to stir paint in one of his buckets.

His hands slowed slightly at this, but he didn't stop painting or look up at me. 

"I think I remeber." He responded quietly. After a few more moments I lay down my brush.

"I think I understand that now, like...but about myself." 

I copy his casual stance by pulling my legs up from under me and sitting on my heels with my hands draped between my knees, waiting for a response. Any response.

He was still for a moment, then with a shrug went back to his task. 

"Well that was random; but I know."

"What do you mean you know?" I asked sharply, "I didn't even really know until five minutes ago!" 

I had to agree, it was random, but I certainly would have never viewed it as obvious.

He shook his head wiped his face again slowly before standing up. I watched, in quite an unsatisfied state, as he walked across the porch and took a long drag from one of his half empty beer bottles that were laying around. 

"I don't know, Aoba. Its just always kind of been there. Maybe its just your personality." 

"What is that supposed to mean?" I stood up, clutching my paint brush as if it would some how defend me.

"Well maybe it's just you're beautiful   
flowing mane. No straight guy has hair that perfect." He laughed, as he pulled his long, silky, hair loose from its ruberbanded man-bun confines with a sassy shake to prove his point. 

The mixed emotions of both anger and joy bubbled up inside of me so furiously, I wasn't sure how to respond to him. It was so unbelievably wonderful to hear him laugh and talk to me again without it being just public and polite, but at the same time, the way he brushed off something so serious and important to me was almost insulting. 

Finally, I couldn't take another second of him staring at me so contently with his cocky grin, so I did the only thing I could; I threw a paintbrush at his dumb, smug face. 

After the initial shock wore off, he picked up a rag an wiped the white from his blue-jean jacket, where I had completely missed my mark. My anger had apparently done nothing to improve my pitiful throwing skills, but the look on his face honestly terrified me. It was kind of the look you get from your father while he prepares to beat you with the closest object, as a punishment for some obscure crime. 

My hands instinctively reached down and grabbed the closest can of paint, just as the paint-soaked brush whizzed past my left ear and landed with a wet thud against the side of his perfect cookie-cutter house. 

A sound escaped from my mouth, sort of the squalling of a terrified animal, as I tried my best to run, but slipped quickly on the freshly coated boards. This sending me sprawling helplessly across the porch and covered me, nose to toes, in thick white paint. 

It was like a scene from one of those documentaries on the animal planet, where the prey struggles helplessly to escape as the predator closes in for the kill. 

Tackling me like two-hundred pound football player, he grabbed the now half emptied can of paint laying beside me and held it over my head at a suggestive angle. 

"I'm sorry it had to end this way, Aoba, but there can be only one gloriously maned gay man in this town." His glance shifted downwards dramatically and I rolled my eyes at his performance, wishing he would kill me and get it over with. "It's such a shame too. I trained you so well." 

When he finally decided he was through with his pointless speech, he gave an evil smirk and raised the can over my face. My shoulders were pinned down by his knees and my struggle did no good. It all happened in slow motion. The tip of the paint can, the escape of my one arm at the last second, the sight of the paint can sailing over the banister when i hit it. Then we heard it. 

"Ren!" I screeched, as the horrified yelp came from below our veiw, right next to the deck. 

I struggled out from under koujaku and raced down the stairs, returning with a soaked and pearly white Ren. 

"Oh....my God...." Koujaku exclaimed as he scooped Ren from my arms, 

"Grams is going to kill me." 

I followed him inside to the closest bathroom, were he set a rather unhappy Ren in the bathtub and began running water. 

"Maybe if we can clean it out of his fur while its still kind of wet, it won't be so bad." 

He threw himself down on a stool that sat near the tub and watched the water it fill slowly. 

"Oh no," he laughed as he glanced in my direction, "look at you." He stood, picking up a chunk of hair that sat heavily on my shoulder, and inspected the damage. 

This caused me to finally take a second and inspect myself in the mirror. I had realized how bad koujaku's damage had been, but mine was worse. I was literally covered from head to toe in white, and my hair was caked in dried lumps.

I let out a loud moan and sunk to the floor as koujaku shut off the water to the now filled bathtub, but from between my fingers, I peeked, as he began scrubbing the mutt with some sort of strong smelling man-soap. 

I watched him as he worked intensely at his task, and after about two bars of soap and quite a few dog bites, he relased ren, towel fluffed to perfection, out of the bathroom.

"You can not even imagine the things he is going to do to your house after that." I stated, as I began fighting with my hair in the mirror. 

"Oh well," he said, as he came into view in the mirror behind me, 

"A little excitement is always good. This house it pretty boring." 

He took some sort of spray off of a shelf and made me wet my hair in the sink as he sprayed it and began working at the mess with his fingers. 

His statement brought to my attention how much time he actually spent alone. No one lived with him, and my family, besides the people he worked with, was the only contact he had with other humans. 

He pulled me over to the stool and sat me down carefully as he continued to work at my hair. 

"Do you ever get lonely, koujaku?" I asked him quietly. 

"Yes." He said after a long pause. 

"So that's why you want to leave?" 

"Yes." He said again, as he yanked the last knot from my hair and took a towel to it. 

I sat silently thinking until he had finished blow-drying my hair, then stood up to look in the mirror. It layed in long, thick, perfect blue waves, cascading down my back and over my shoulders. Not a trace of paint to be seen. 

"Wow....koujaku....its.." I stumbles as I traced a finger delicately along the waves. 

"Thanks." He responded in his one-worded way, once again, then left the bathroom, signalling my turn for departure as well. 

I grabbed a scurrying Ren up from the floor as he tried to make as much distance between himself and the bath giver as possible. 

"Again....thank you." I said as I fought with Ren. 

"Really. Don't mention it, its my job." He said, as he picked a fleck of paint from his cheek. 

"No." I responded, "I meant for always being there for me, and always forgiving me." 

"There's nothing for me to be upset with you for," he said as he adjusted a curl on my shoulder, "you're growing up, I'm glad you've found someone that makes you happy." 

There it was. He actually was jealous of Noiz. 

"Koujaku I..." 

"I need to get cleaned up, Ill see you tomorrow." His face was expressionless, but I could tell by his voice that there was no point in arguing, so I simply walked out onto the porch and shut the door behind me. 

As I began walking home, I pondered his last statement. 

*"I'm glad you've found someone that makes you happy."*

About the time that the crunch of gravel hit my feet, I got an idea, 

*"Someone who makes you happy."* 

"I'm an idiot." I said to myself, and ran the rest of the way home. 

"Hey Grams, love you, be down in a second!" I cried, as I grabbed the house phone from its cradle and bolted up the steps. About thirty minutes later, I watched from my window, quite pleased with myself, as the old station wagon pulled in next door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahahah Aoba is gay.


	7. Note to my readers

To all of my fabulous (and ridiculously patient) readers: I WILL be updating Dramatical High School this month. It’s...it’s been a while guys (lol), but I have been working like crazy to get some content for you to enjoy. Life has been wild…like more wild than you could ever imagine. I wish I could explain to all of you the enormous pile of shit that was my life and that was keeping me from updating, but instead, I will just supply you with some porn in the next chapter. Fair trade? I think yes. That’s right, the next update is a Clear/Koujaku chapter and it is going to be booty-licious (hehe). Now before I get back to slaving over my keyboard for you guys once again, I have an idea to run by you that I have been pondering over recently. I went back and re-read the previous chapters, and although they are good…I feel like my writing has improved a TON in the past couple of years, and I am considering re-writing the chapters and just sort of…spiffing them up a bit? Idk, you guys can comment and let me know, but let’s be honest; Grammar was not my friend back then, and I left a lot of info out that I needed to better clarify some of my ideas with. Just let me know guys. Once again, thanks 1000000000 times for dealing with my salty ass and waiting on my updates. You rock more than THE Rock! <3 Now get out of here you thirsty gay lovers, I have writing to do.


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